In my last blog, Robert, Caroline, Heather and myself had
arrived in Cotonou, Benin in West Africa. At 8.00am on the morning
of May 31st , Himi, who works for Right To Play, was
waiting for us at the front door of Hotel Ibis. As we left the
building, a blanket of heat engulfed us. Himi drove through the
crazy rush-hour traffic to the local offices of Right To Play. We
were met by Marie-Josephine (Country Manager), Romeo Essou (Program
Manager) and Christiane Boton (Project Coordinator). These three
staff members were born and raised in Benin. Marie-Josephine
explained the work which Right To Play has been doing in the
country. In 2011, the programs will reach over 167,000 children in
1,052 schools and 48 youth centres.

Our first school visit was planned for the afternoon. Lunchtime
traffic was no better than the morning. Himi is a gifted driver and
we survived the trip to the school. Dogoudo school goes from grades
1 to 6, has 295 students, but only 6 teachers. The lack of teachers
was a recurring theme. The three open-air classrooms boarder on to
a large dirt court-yard. We were greeted by a group of grade 5 and
6 boys and girls doing a traditional dance. Then it was right into
the games. The first was a team event with three teams of ten
members. We had to fill a ladle with water, run down a course, put
the water in a pail run back with the ladle and pass it to the next
team member. I raced two grade 4 kids and managed to win my heat.
The kids loved this and were yelling and cheering. I was then taken
over to a set of drums and became part of the school band. The
temperature was 35C and I was soaked. The kids found this
funny.

After saying goodbye, we were on the road again, heading out of
Cotonou for a very special meeting. We had been granted an audience
with King Allada XVI. Benin has 12 domains or provinces and there
are several Kings in each one. They still hold a lot of power over
the local people and it's important to get them to support the
Right To Play programs. With us were five children, three boys and
two girls, from five different schools and they were going to make
a presentation to the King. We entered a large room and it was
stifling. We were shown to the comfy chairs but the rest of the
King's 70 strong entourage were seated on the floor. We waited.
Then King Allada entered and sat on his leopard skin covered
throne. He had a fan lady and an umbrella lady with him. There were
a number of speeches. I haven't mentioned before but, Benin is
French speaking. This was a bit of a challenge for me because,
unfortunately, my French is not good. It was not much of an issue
with the kids because I can communicate with gestures, but formal
speeches were tough.

We each had to introduce ourselves so I'd learnt "Je m'apelle
Martin. Je suis Courier Marathon" and that seemed to work. Then the
kids gave their presentation on children's rights. It was in French
but it's meaning was crystal clear. The room was hushed as the
children stated that they had a right to education, they had a
right to being looked after, and they had a right to play. For a
moment the place was absolutely still. Very powerful.

In a future blog I'll talk about Day 2 of the visit, the
inaugural run of the Right To Play Benin Running Club and the visit
to Houekegbo school for "Tree day".

Dr Randolph Randolph's book of animal jokes

Q. What do you get if you cross a frog and a dog?
A. A croaker spaniel!

Quote of the Day

"The person who answers the starting gun of their first Ironman
is not the same person who reaches the finish line"

Martin Parnell's Blog

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